Junior Seau's Family We WILL Donate His Brain

5/4/2012 5:33 AM PDT

Junior Seau's Family -- We WILL Donate His Brain

Junior Seau's family will donate the NFL legend's brain to be studied for concussion research ... a rep for the family has announced.

San Diego Chargers team chaplain Shawn Mitchell told The L.A. Times, "The family was considering this almost from the beginning, but they didn't want to make any emotional decisions. And when they came to a joint decision that absolutely this was the best thing, it was a natural occurrence for the Seau family to go forward."

The family has NOT decided which research center will get Seau's brain -- but the two leading candidates are the Sports Legacy Institute at Boston University and the Brain Injury Research Institute.

As we previously reported, Seau apparently commited suicide by shooting himself in the chest -- leading many to believe he wanted to leave his brain intact so researchers could study the long-term effects of concussions sustained in the NFL.